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By
Bruce Bressack
08/21/2003
Boomers
There I go again, making absolutely no sense! Happens every time I try to write at 4:00 AM.
This time of the morning, the brain is still in a fog and no quantity of caffeine, or Zeppelin 8-track tapes, can shake it from its stupor.
Excuses, excuses you say? Darn right, but it's almost my 52nd birthday so cut me a break......'Danke Schoen'.
So you'll forgive me (yes?) if this week's column is about Family. No, not this 'Family of Mine' [this time]. It's about the family we're all part of.....the 'Family of Man'.
This column got its 'kick-start' from listening to Michael Savage's interview of the reverend Jerry Falwell last night. Let me tell you, it was the "love-feast-from-hell". It made my stomach hurt. No wonder I couldn't sleep!
I think they're both bright, intelligent, well-educated men, but boy can they think up stupid things to say.
Not that I'd want to debate either of them. You'd never be able to get a word in edgewise. After all, they have god, righteousness, and hysteria on their side.
They seemed to be rallying against everything. Name a topic, and they'd identify the enemy (real or imagined). It was almost like they were 'talking-in-code', in that special 'short-hand'...reserved for members of 'segregated country clubs'.
They were anti-this, anti-that...they were even anti-anti. Honestly, I never realized that there were ACLU Communists and Red Diaper Doper Babies "out there" (wherever there is?) ready to tear down the nation and our religious institutions. Guess I missed that episode of "Anti-Sesame Street"!
What they were saying may have been absolutely valid, in terms of 'Family Values' and 'American Virtues'. I found myself agreeing with some of their arguments, that is, until they "turned-up-the-rhetoric".
Maybe it was all about ratings, but when the ranting began they lost this 'potential disciple'. [Give a man a rant, and he'll rant today...teach a man to rant, and he'll turn on you and all your neighbors].
You can yell Michael, but it truly dilutes your message. For a "smart guy", your choice of words is "poor" (in spite of your Ph.D).
You can try to smooth-talk us Jerry, but your soft and virtuous words are far from "godlike and forgiving".
Last time I looked, we were all in the same boat, no one more perfect (or all-knowing) than the other...
...learning to live together...
...in this crazy little thing called the 'Family of Man'.
Bruce Bressack is a singer-songwriter, producer and freelance writer currently living in New England. He’s a 52 year old baby-boomer, ex-Yuppie, ex-New Yorker, guitar-slingin’, piano-slappin’, finally ‘retired’, television tube lover...
Bruce Bressack can be reached at bbressack@hippopress.com